FORT WORTH, Texas -- The former State Department chief for the George W. Bush administration says the Keystone XL pipeline should be built quickly, and warned that political dithering on such critical energy infrastructure will harm the United States.

Delivering a luncheon speech yesterday at a major energy conference under way here, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put her support behind the controversial oil sands pipeline project being pursued by TransCanada. Given the promise of unconventional energy to free the United States from Middle East crude supplies, it only makes sense to build the infrastructure that will be needed, she said.

TransCanada's project has passed all the necessary environmental and Department of State reviews, and further delays to its final approval make no sense, Rice said.

"There is absolutely no reason not to do it," she told the audience of roughly 2,500 oil and gas executives and related professionals.

Rice's speech was the highlight of the first full day of events at the annual Hart Energy unconventional energy industry gathering, the first in a series of events the energy intelligence firm will host.

The former secretary of State said she still supports work in alternative energy. But in a question-and-answer session following her remarks on foreign policy, the focus was on developments in the domestic U.S. oil and gas industry and how they would affect the nation's relations with other countries.

Rice said she envisioned an "energy independent North America," urging full cooperation with Canada and Mexico to develop their supplies of crude oil for import into the United States, while firms here continued to boost production from domestic sources like shale oil and offshore fields.

She cautioned that the United States wouldn't free itself from having to deal with Middle Eastern politics. Nevertheless, Rice suggested that an end to crude oil imports into the United States from that region, replaced instead with imports from Canada, Mexico and other parts of Latin America, could have a major impact on international relations globally.

Rice said the only risk could come from the United States' deliberately weakening itself through political battles over pipelines and other facets of oil and gas development, preventing this new energy picture from becoming reality.

"We are in danger ... of taking one of the greatest gifts and throwing it away," Rice said.

The Republican, who has been talked about as a potential vice presidential pick this year, said she isn't worried about state-owned oil and gas companies from China and Russia investing in U.S. shale oil and gas plays. However, she urged the audience to guard against the high probability of intellectual property (IP) theft that arises when they move to make investments or develop partnerships in those countries, citing Russia and China's much weaker legal IP protections.

"When it goes the other way, be careful of your IP," she said.